HP BLINKS with Innovation

I read Gladwell's first book The Tipping Point after reading some reviews. This possibly was one of the most difficult books to finish reading. Last time I had this problem was when I was in high school where you are forced to read books that are of no interest to you. But the problem I had with this book was how empty and long-winded it was. Gladwell is a popcorn writer. He takes a kernel (a thought, a sentence) heats it up and expands it to fill the pages of an entire book. Now he has a new book called Blink and he has done the same thing and has proven his own theory of the Tipping Point. All we needed was an article or paragraph to summarize his thoughts. I don't think I shall be buying his new book. I would rather jump off my balcony and experience the pain of broken bones. Here is a review:

"When I finished this book I was impressed. Then I blinked -- and realized that I was taken in by its surface attractiveness. After the initial glamour wore off, I was left deeply unsatisfied. This book is over-hyped, and so underperforms. The point of this book can be summed up as: "Trust your intuitions. Well, not quite; trust them, if and only if they are good." Gladwell tells lots of anecdotes to indicate that sometimes less is more. But of course he also tells anecdotes that tell us sometimes less is less."

With his knew status companies such as Hewlett Packard have asked Gladwell to come speak to them of all things innovation. What a sad reflection upon a corporation struggling with the idea of ideas (innovation). HP's director of brand innovation states the reason in this Fast Company article:

"We want to innovate and break out, but we don't have the instinct for it, really. It scares us a little,"

It scares me too. Corporations function by measuring quantifiable things: like gross margins and case rates and return on capital invested. When they make the leap out of this realm they encounter a frightening and immeasurable reality. If it can't be measured it has no value. Creative types can understand why the lack of appreciation or value they experience at times. In The Tyranny of Numbers, David Boyle quotes the economist Robert Chambers:

"Quantification brings credibility. But figures and tables can deceive, and numbers construct their own realities. What can be measured and manipulated statistically is then not only seen as real; it comes to be seen as the only or the whole reality."

It's no surprise that corporations must go outside to find innovative ideas with their self imposed handicap. P&G's swiffer was developed by design firm Continuum. The Crest spin brush was purchased from a small company.

"P&G introduced the initiative called "Connect & Develop" in 1999/2000, to emphasize that not all innovations need come from inside the organization."

The case for the MFA as the new MBA begins to make more sense. Canada's largest grocery retailer Loblaws ($25.2-billion in annual sales) recently appointed an industrial designer, J. Jackman as their VP of marketing not someone with an MBA.
Can an organization innovate within an environment hostile to creativity and innovation? If the innovation manager calls in Gladwell to speak you are in trouble.